So how old is the Boston Mini Marathon really?

I've been trying to come up with a list of all the winners of the Boston Mini Marathon. The project started after the 2010 race, and I spent a few minutes looking up the easy years, 1998 to 2010. After that I put away the list and forgot about it. There was no hurry; so far as I knew I was the only one who cared.


The 2011 race, billed by everyone as the 32nd annual Boston Mini Marathon, brought the project back to mind again. Winners Kevin Sullivan and Sheryl Rosen had run the fastest times since 1998, but there were 18 other years to consider before you could say whether or not Sullivan's 69:29 or Rosen's 82:10 were course records. I went back to work, digging through old Gulf Winds Track Club newsletters and back issues of Racing South magazine. With eight-and-a-half years of data still missing, I tried Google out of desperation. And found this:


This was entirely unexpected. If the 2011 race was really the 32nd annual Boston Mini Marathon, then 1980 would have been the first race. But this Waycross Journal-Herald article indicates that the Mini actually started in 1979. Unless someone skipped a year along the way, the 2011 race was actually the 33rd Boston Mini Marathon.


Of course, this discovery just creates more work. Now the age of the race is in question, and the 1979 newspaper article carelessly omits the name of the top woman finisher. You know, it may be time to shelve the list for another twelve months. The work won't be any easier in a year, but with any luck I'll have forgotten about it entirely by then.

Boston (mini) Marathon Champions, 1980-2011
Date	Men	Women
29 October 2011	69:29 Kevin Sullivan	82:10 Sheryl Rosen
30 October 2010	75:13 Vince Molosky	86:59 Lisa Johnson
31 October 2009	79:49 Vince Molosky	87:10 Sheryl Rosen
25 October 2008	81:50 Myles Gibson	86:19 Sheryl Rosen
27 October 2007	76:18 John Seppala	87:35 Sheryl Rosen
28 October 2006	81:18 Michael Martinez	82:49 Sheryl Rosen
29 October 2005	81:11 Myles Gibson	96:32 Jennifer Kilinski
30 October 2004	83:55 David Yon	91:57 Jane Johnson
25 October 2003	76:20 Myles Gibson	97:52 Lisa Whitworth
26 October 2002	84:38 Mike Posey	92:41 Carrie Weyant
27 October 2001	82:36 Steven Walker	95:24 Carrie Weyant
28 October 2000	75:28 Art Remillard	83:20 Sarah Docter-Williams
30 October 1999	78:22 Corey Cherr	95:28 Julie Carico
31 October 1998	80:25 Rusty Jones	97:01 Peggy Simpson
1997
1996
28 October 1995	78:21 Paul Hough	91:01 Katherine Perez
29 October 1994	72:42 Paul Hough	92:34 Diane Turchick
30 October 1993	75:33 Paul Hough	86:09 Carrie Weyant
31 October 1992	77:45 Steve Carney	86:05 Carrie Hunnicutt
26 October 1991
27 October 1990	79:33 Brian Murphy	86:44 Donna Miller
28 October 1989	71:23 Alex Walmsley	93:10 Mary Jean Yon
29 October 1988	74:22 T. C. Carroll	1:41:54 Nancy Widener
1987
8 November 1986
11 November 1985	67:30 Herb Wills	88:06 Patti Sudduth
27 October 1984
1983
1982	67:48 Noel Shuman
31 October 1981	69:57 Gary Slayton	88:56 Lt. Vickie Monroe
1980	Gary Slayton
27 October 1979	71:40 Bruce Carpenter
Got any information on the missing years? Let me know! Send an e-mail to hwills@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

Links:

• 2011 Boston story, "Sullivan and Rosen smokin' at the Boston Mini"
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/10/boston-mini-2011.html
  
  
• 2010 Boston story, "Molosky makes it two-in-a-row at the Boston Mini"
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2010/10/boston-mini-2010.html
  
  
• 2009 Boston story, "Another Boston Mini Win For Rosen"
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2009/11/another-boston-mini-win-for-rosen.html
  
  
• Another area race that doesn't know it's own age
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/06/sizzler-2011.html
  
  
• Find upcoming races of various ages in the Tallahassee region
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1